On March 30, 1842, Dr. Crawford Williamson Long of Jefferson, Georgia, excised a small tumor from the neck of James Venable. Before the age of anesthetics, even so minor a surgery would have entailed horrible pain for the patient, but in this instance Dr. Long persuaded his friend to inhale ether from a cloth before surgery. When Long completed the operation, Venable refused to believe the surgery had taken place until he was shown the tumor. Two months later, he underwent a similar operation at Long’s hands for a second tumor, and was again astounded by the absence of pain.
Later that summer, Long wrote, “My third experiment in etherization was made on 3rd July, 1842, and was on a Negro boy, the property of Mrs. S. Hemphill, who resides nine miles from Jefferson. The boy had a disease of the toe, which rendered its amputation necessary, and the operation was performed without the boy evincing the least sign of pain.”
With all the pain medications available to us today, and with anesthetics for surgery, we moderns can scarcely imagine the agonies suffered by our not-so-distant ancestors while under a surgeon’s scalpel or a dentist’s toothkey.
Born in 1815 into a prominent Georgia family of Scots-Irish descent, Crawford Long shone brightly as a student. Described as “studious and wise beyond his years,” at the age of 19 he graduated from Franklin College, which is today the University of Georgia. The following year, he studied medicine at Kentucky’s Transylvania College (now University), then headed north to continue his education with some of the best doctors in the country at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his degree in 1839, then worked for a short time as a hospital intern in New York City.
Long’s teachers and colleagues regard him as a particularly skilled surgeon, and he considered joining the medical service of the U.S. Navy. Perhaps persuaded by his father, Long instead returned home and set up his practice in the small town of Jefferson, where his services aroused the admiration and affection of all who knew him.
In 1842, the young physician wedded Caroline Swain, a union that produced 12 children, seven of whom lived to adulthood. Almost a decade later, the couple moved to Athens, where Long continued to practice medicine and opened a pharmacy with his brother. During the Civil War, he tended to soldiers on both sides. He died in 1878, probably of a stroke, after assisting at the birth of a child.
Ether Frolics and a Surgeon’s Eye
In the first half of the 19th century, both ether and nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, provided amusement more than anything else. The barkers at medicine shows would give hits of laughing gas to volunteers from the audience, whose antics onstage would then amuse the crowd. Popular too, particularly among students and young people, were “Ether Frolics,” where participants would inhale the chemical for its exhilarating effects.
During the pursuit of his medical degree, Long attended some of these frolics. Here he noticed that the participants, made giddy and drunk by these fumes, could fall to the floor or engage in fistfights without any apparent sign of pain.
At this time, surgeons tried a variety of techniques to reduce the pain of surgery—hypnosis, alcohol, opiates—none of which really worked. Consequently, nearly all surgeries involved only amputation or operations on the body’s surface. The interior was off-limits in terms of treatment, in large part because of the horrific pain such a surgery would entail.
Long’s keen observations at the ether frolics emboldened him to try his experiment with James Venable, who had also taken part in these frolics, and so the first surgery with ether successfully took place.
‘The Ether Controversy’
A portrait of William T. G. Morton, the promoter who gave international renown to the use of ether. (Wellcome Images/CC BY 4.0 DEED)
Meanwhile, two dentists, William Morton and Horace Wells, and chemist and geologist Charles Jackson were also investigating the possibilities of ether as an anesthetic. In “Ether day: An Intriguing History,” Maj. Gen. Dr. Ravindra Chaturvedi and Dr. R.L. Gogna look at the tangled relationship of these men, all of whom claimed to have discovered the application of ether to surgical procedures.
Wells, who had helped train Morton as a dentist, put on an 1845 exhibition of a tooth extraction at the Massachusetts General Hospital, but misjudged the amount of gas needed. When the patient cried out during surgery, Wells was roundly booed and condemned as a fake. Though Jackson had pointed Morton toward the use of ether, the dentist later denied that influence.
The first recorded use of ether, as an anesthetic, was in 1846, during an operation to remove a tooth. An illustration of Morton making the first public demonstration, 19th century, by Henry Bryan Hall. (Public Domain)
Morton was the showman of this trio. On Oct. 16, 1846, he staged what became known as “Ether Day,” returning to Massachusetts General and demonstrating the efficacy of the ether vapor on a patient. He was, as Drs. Chaturvedi and Gogna write, “the first person who with personal inspiration and conviction effectively administered the right agent, before the right audience, in the right place, at the right moment in history and ensured that the news of his success spread all over the world.”
Here, these two authors rightly tout Morton as the promoter who gave international renown to the use of ether, which, in turn, not only brought relief to countless suffering people, but also allowed for the vast expansion of surgical operations.
And Crawford Long? Where did he fit into this story?
Recognition Delayed
An illustration of a doctor administering anesthesia with Crawford Long's reflection in the glass. (Courtesy of Crawford W. Long Museum)
Long had delayed publishing the results of his experiments in order to run more tests. He was limited in this regard by the smaller number of patients available for surgery compared to those of Morton at the Boston hospital. Though he published testimonies from patients along with dates of their treatment, Long went to his grave unrecognized by those outside his circle for his accomplishment.
Within a year of his death, however, the National Eclectic Medical Association recognized Long as the premier pioneer in anesthesia. His work has since been saluted by medical organizations around the world and commemorated by statues and a U.S. postage stamp. In the United States, March 30, the date on which Long first employed ether on a patient, is National Doctors Day.
A statue of Crawford Long stands in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building. Under the inscription recognizing Long as “the discoverer of the use of sulphuric ether as an anaesthetic in surgery” is this tribute to the man and his work in his own words: “My profession is to me a ministry from God.”
The Crawford W. Long Museum in Jefferson, Georgia, provides educational exhibits about the life and career of Dr. Crawford Long. (Courtesy of Crawford W. Long Museum)
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Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies Make The Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.
